Monday, September 26, 2011

I know it’s been a week or so since my last painting update… but I haven’t been slacking off or anything! I’ve been working on the Welsh in batches of 10 (2 stands worth), which I seemed to finish up one batch every other night or so. Now they are done! (well… the EARLY Welsh… I have a load of Welsh archers still to paint for one of the post 1100 versions of the army… but that’s for another day… or year…)

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

There are the new stands I finished up this past week and a half (I’d started on this a few weeks back and previously posted pics of a few stands)

This finishes up DBA Army III/19a Welsh 580-1099. Here’s how the army breaks down

Now those that are paying close attention will notice I actually painted up an extra “warband” and an extra psiloi – this is to cover parts of the later lists (III/19b and III/19c Welsh 1100 – 1420 – South and North, respectively). I also have a PILE of archers to paint up as the III/19b (south) list has 8 stands of Long Bow. Also I’ve done all these warbands with spear as III/19c list no longer has Warband but 8 Spear (with the option of three more – or three bow, or three psiloi).

Now I don’t really have any feudal/medieval opponents of these later options, and, honestly, would the welsh of 1420 still have been carrying round shields with celtic devices…? I don’t know… I HAVE all the archer figures – which is what got me thinking I could do all three…

In the category of not-so-Welsh…. A couple other things I’ve finished up this week:

I’ve been reading Larry Gonick’s Cartoon History of the Universe I (volumes 1-7) and the boy seems pretty interested in the Egyptians… so…

Of course the book ended with Alexander the Great (almost as a footnote – I hope he expands on that just a bit in the next book!), which has got me thinking about all the Diadochi DBA armies I have sitting in boxes…. (Actually, over the weekend I noted that I had fifty temporary painting bases in the pile - which I just removed Welsh from – so I started gluing Alexandrian pikemen down to them!?)

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Last Friday The kids and I had another bash at Hordes of the Things while Amanda was out at Hot Yoga…

The boy seemed anxious for a rematch between the Elves and the Irish – Determined was he to acquire that Elvish gold! (I think it was the leprechauns that convinced him they had lots…).

SITUATION

This time it was an even lesser known warlord named Bearach, who also happened to have land on the border of faerieland and was also jealous of the Sídhe (Elves) that lived within – certain that they possessed much gold and would not share it (or so the Leprechauns he caught one night told him; “Oh, Aye, sure I’ve got a pot o’gold, but it’s a wee small pot – if it’s gold ye want I suggest yeh go ask them Sídhe across the river in fairieland – they’re loaded with theh stoof!”). So he too gathered up his followers, hired some Norse mercenaries and even brought along some recently arrives Christian missionarires, and marched off toward faerieland determined to invade and take that entire horde for himself.

Bearach and his Irish mob approach the river that mark the border to Faerieland…. The Elves seem forewarned and ready for him…

Finnegan is not so sure about this river business…

Honestly, I had quite forgotten how long and drawn out a river crossing scenario can be… oi…

The opposing generals eye each other suspiciously…

Rolling only one PIP on his first go – Bearach sent the wolfhounds rushing out from the woods!

While the Irish were plagued by bad PIP rolls the first couple turns, the Elves had an abundance… the were defending their side of the river bank before the main force of the Irish even began to advance…

The Centaurs peel off the left of the line to go deal with the wolfhounds attempting to cross over on the left.

I’m not sure Finnegan quite anticipated how quickly riders can go!! While he’s used them – I’m not sure he’s actually faced any armies with fast-moving mounted troops!

As some of the Irish warriors attempted a crossing back on the left of the Elvish line, the Centaurs split up – one squadron of them galloping back to deal with the new crossing, while the other carried on teo deal with the wolfhounds on their own.

The centaurs caught the wolfhounds as they dashed out of the river….

…and obliterated them – scattering the remains of the pack (or perhaps giving them tasty doggie-biscuits and taming the friendly fellows and freeing them to roam and frolic in the faerieland woods as they pleased…).

The Irish make an effective crossing with three warband.

Finnegan hasn’t quite grasped the “roll-up-the-line” concept and had his eyes firmly on the gold in the Elvish stronghold.

I think it’s because I’d told him about how Rick had won three games in a row in our HOTT Campaign a couple years back by flanking around the enemy and taking the stronghold… he seems to have forgotten that Rick did this with a HERO and two riders… (fast-moving, hard-hitting).

The other centaurs came galloping back across to deal with the Irish invaders in the swamp.

On they pressed, however!

The centaurs did catch one band at the edge of the swamp…

…and miraculously destroyed them (mounted fighting against opponents in bad-going are -2, which made the total factors +1 for the riders, +3 for the warband… I think it was the recoiling into friendlies that got them… because with those odds the riders couldn’t have possibly doubled them… hmmmm…).

Another band of Irish turned to face the centaurs – hoping to distract them while the other warband made a break for the GOLD!

Another band of Irish shot down in the middle of the river by the Elves…

Oh so close…

The gold is nearly theirs!!!

Of course a solitary Warband (+3) versus a Stronghold (+6) isn’t normally going to work out in the warbands favour…

They were recoiled and the centaurs caught up with them… They battle back and forth for a number of turns…

Meanwhile… back and the river… more Irish had made a crossing and the Christian missionaries were keen to show they were in control of the situation. I think the bishop may have, in his fervor of preaching of hellfire and damnation, may have made some unfortunate statement such as; “and that is why the Elves and their evil kin must be cleansed from this earth, may God strike me dead…”

BZOT!

Well… someone struck him dead…

Most of the rest of the Irish were forced back into the river as well, perhaps recoiling from the smell of crispy Christians…

…but charged back up the bank s when the smoke cleared…

And beat down some of the Elf wizards themselves!

Looking less good for the Elves suddenly…

The Centaurs and Irish warriors had battled back and forth a few times nearly pushing ech other off the edge or back into friendly troops a couple of times… All the while another stand of Irish warband were sneaking their way through the woods to have a go at the Elvish stronghold.

Finally the second squadron (herd?) of centaurs got in there…

…and it was all over for the irish warriors… and the Irish in general – the loss of that last warband shattered the armies morale and they withdrew back to their own lands…

Thursday, September 15, 2011

I knocked off a few new terrain tiles this last week (and repaired a few older ones). I figured with the new Norse Irish DBA army (and working on the Welsh) I could do with some new terrain for all the auxilia and psiloi (and warband!) to hide out in… woods… swamps… steep, rocky hills…. Same goes for the next army I’m working on: The Welsh!

Of course I’ve realized the Irish are Littoral… so next I should be making some shoreline tiles for that required “waterway”…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

Swamp, Woods, Steep Hill, and Open.

I'm not so sure about the steep hill... it might be a bit TOO steep... I was torn between making it a stepped rocky sort of hill or making it as it is - there's enough texture on it that stands seem to be able to stay more or less still... we shall see, I guess.

The reeds on the swamp were made from the bristles of a basting brush from the dollar store. They were stuck to a washer and gooped like any figure bas I do – I wanted them to be moveable (like the trees in the woods tiles) so they could be moved out the way of any advancing DBA stands!

I now have about 21 tiles (or the rough equivalent – I have one big tile that’s 2x3 and counting that as 6 tiles…). I have bases for a few more already cut – just have to plan out what I need and get building! I’d like to have enough that I could have three games going using the terrain tiles – and not have any needing to use the river tiles… so 28 plus the river sections… of which there are currently four… so ten… and with one more I could have two games going on with no rivers… Hmmmm…

Maybe I should work on some new camps too…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Waterways!? …and maybe some more woods and hills and swamps….!?

I’m also on a bit of a roll with the Welsh – finished up enough chaps for two more stands of warband last night (they just need to be based). In a couple more evenings I will probably have the whole army complete! Well… all the options for the earlier Welsh. I’ll still have scads of bow to finish for some of the later Welsh options… but I’m not so concerned about that for the time being…

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Starting in on a new DBA army this past week (the Welsh) and finishing up a couple other things…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

One warband and three psiloi – all the figures are from Old Glory (what is with the one shoe on half these guys!?)

Vikings – oly two guys on the stand are newly painted – there’s been some reorganization of my DBA armies and some were pilfered from an additional command stand that I just didn’t need. The individually based skirmishers are all from Gripping Beast. On the stand are Gripping Beast and Old Glory.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Playing Hordes of the Things with the kids again… Finnegan decided he wanted to play the Orcs again. I talked Keira out of playing the Elves again, pointing out that the Dwarves had three stands of “Shield Maidens”…

SITUATION

Malcoff the Grunt finks there’s gold in them dwarfie mines. Gonna attack it and get some.

Then some Wolf riders rode down and scattered a legion of Dwarf Warriors…

Then a pack of wolves shredded the Dwarves giant armoured badgers?!

FINALLY, the Dwarven Bear-riding knights rode down another pack of wolf riders!?

OI!

End of the first round of combat – both sides down two stands!

On the Dwarves bound, Thora Redbraid personally led a charge against a particularly nasty pack of wolfriders and shattered them!

Further down the line the Dwarf handgunners, though overlapped, managed to blast another pack of wolfriders to quivering bits of fur and flesh.

Orcs down four… But things looked bad for the dwarves on the next bound…

The Behemoths made contact with the left of the Dwarf line – contacting shooters and Warband – both of which they quick-kill…

But the Dwarf handgunners held their own against the Giants and the Wild Hillmen threw back the Trolls and utterly destroyed them! Which pretty much ended the game for the Orcs right there… but we finished out the round…

The Orcs had managed to flank a legion of Shield Maidens – with the General leading the attack… but the Shield Maidens held their line against the odds!

The Dwarven Knights were forces back for a second turn in a row – pushing them right to the edge of the table – another turn of such luck and they’d be done for!